Nigerian captors free British girl
Published: 7/8/07, 3:00 AM EDT
Nigerian kidnappers released a 3-year-old British girl on Sunday after holding her for four days, and no ransom was paid, according to Nigerian police sources close to the investigation.
Margaret Hill is well and at home, police told CNN.
"She's coming alive all the time," her father, Mike Hill, told Sky News on Sunday, according to The Associated Press, adding that she was in "a bit of a trance when we first got her back."
"I don't think she's had very much to eat because she's hungry now," Hill was quoted as saying to Sky News. "She's covered in mosquito bites. The bites are really bad." He attributed her release to pressure from Nigerian security services.
"I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their help, and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement issued late Sunday.
Gunmen snatched Hill on Thursday after smashing the windows of the car that was carrying her to school in the southern city of Port Harcourt, local police said. Her driver was stabbed while trying to shield her during the attack, according to AP.
The girl's kidnappers fed her bread and water, according to local reports. The kidnappers threatened to kill the girl unless her father -- a British national and longtime resident of Nigeria -- agreed to take her place. Margaret's mother, Oluchi, is Nigerian.
The girl is the third child to be kidnapped in the oil-rich region in recent weeks -- and is believed to be the first Western child to be kidnapped in Nigeria.
There were no immediate reports of who was responsible for her kidnapping. Earlier this week the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta -- a group known to carry out kidnappings and attacks in the region -- denied involvement. The group will "join in the hunt for the monsters who carried out this abduction," a MEND spokesman said.
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